well first of all thanks Colonel Campbell uh that was great info I liked what you said about you know you need to go to people that have the autonomy to to make things happen and I don't know about you grit but Marisha Hargitay is definitely at least a little bit of the reason why I'm a cop now so um anyways um I'm officer Emily Nelson and this is detective grit catone as you can tell by our lovely wallpaper with Mesa PD um with today's prompt being communities of practice we wanted to talk a little about of the a little bit about the things that our department has done to be successful with this initiative or make the steps to be successful one of the things that we did recently that was really important was the fifth was it the fifth annual fifth uh annual women's leadership Symposium series which uh grit did a wonderful job with planning it was a lunch that our sworn professionals and our professional staff oh by the way we're joined today by Minnie Salas and Tara Hall who set us up we're not going to turn the camera and show them because who knows if they'll get it back so um but anyways this was a luncheon where our Command Staff our swarm professionals and our professional staff had the opportunity to come and enjoy and get supported and get some good training so grit tell us about it you did a wonderful job so I so it is the it was our fifth one um I participated and I think I just have missed one and I think I was out of town but I feel like I might me personally I was I got always something out of it um this fifth one I was very fortunate that I was able to participate and be part of the planning from the very beginning till the end like Emily said the uh the difference on this uh series was that we did invite Command Staff and our mail officers and just made a point that it's open to everybody on our police department and even our our professional staff was always invited also but we just wanted to be known that this is not just for women that makes I think it's growing you know every year it's getting better and better I I've been on for 15 years Emily been offered two yeah yeah brand new so I think it's important that you know that our young female officers or even our young male officers you know you know that the our males that do support our females but just to get it introduced to them and just have them you know recognize that just building these relationships are very important working relationships and even you hear leadership and thinking you know I just started I'm just now their career doesn't mean that they're ready to promote but it's it's something that you're going to take with you and have an understanding on how your department is you know where you just get that knowledge and you can carry that and you can carry it with your peers and share that information with your peers um one thing that I did want to point out we did have over 100 participants but uh we even shared it and opened it up to other agencies our sister agencies to you know you know a lot of us you know in the academy we have other agencies and you know that we have already sisters and brothers like relationships already built and to continue our sister agencies to be part of that also talk about highlighted guests um I do want to point out one thing that did uh stand out for me personally also I think Emily too she um our panel or it was full of amazing the wonderful ladies of the amazing woman yes from La uh Lieutenant Rodriguez Lieutenant epilito um Commander Flores and assistant chief and to readies they were just them being there and presenting the information that they provided as far as preparing for any interviews that are coming up or just the preparation part yeah but a big shout out to them I know you want to add a little bit that part I mean for me this was the first event I had the opportunity to attend and you know leadership Symposium I had no idea what that meant I knew there was going to be lunch which was great but I walked away with so much more uh the panel with lapoa was incredible they literally sat us all down and walked us through how to Ace the Sergeant's exam and not all of us aspire to be Sergeants but that that same information on doing well in an oral board setting can be used for whatever aspirations that are younger or seasoned officers have I mean I have classmates that want to go to Street crimes I'm not going to Street crimes but I um but anyways um and what was important was that training was tailored to women assistant chief tan Grady's literally said something to the effect of like you need to walk into that interview like you are Beyonce and she's you know she spoke our language um LT Rodriguez she said a lot of things that a lot of us needed to hear when it's an or time for an oral board it's not the time to talk about well we did this no I did this I was successful in doing this and I think another thing that she said that really spoke to me and that a lot of younger ladies need to hear is you walk into that room with the perfect score and it's your job to keep it and and show what you got so um yeah it was just a great environment to get that training that was specifically for women I'll use it to help my peers male and female one of the challenges with with things like this is of course getting your your peers to come along and understand the importance and sometimes that takes some some arm twisting but at the end of the day I did sit through that great training I have the presentation and when it's time for the ladies that I went to the academy with to test for sergeant or test for Street crimes or whatever they do want to do I have that training to to help them and do that mock oral board and all that good stuff aside from the training it was just a really great environment for creating you know that support and mentorship I had a great opportunity to talk to commander daravan who I've looked up to since she taught us in the academy so it was just it was strong women leadership for sure we had assistant chief uh Gina nesbeth also there uh and then we had our city council um and our milk our milk um for sure stuff for sure just seeing that support I think made a big difference and um I did want to bring something up also the importance of building those relationships even though working relationships even though that they're not in their Department you're making uh having those building those relationships with other outside agencies uh Lieutenant Rodriguez and Lieutenant epilito kudos to you uh they made extra time outside of this Symposium to kind of give you know to give me guidance and critique me as far as to prepare me for the sergeant sets team uh yeah so um I told them when I first met them they asked me straight for like you know what's your plans like what are you can I explain to them well I only have 15 you know I already have 15 almost 15 years I'm probably gonna just finish out my career 20 and just leave and that's when they actually they were my inspiration as to move forward and and promote and like they made a big impact and big influence their you know command presence and it's important for each agency to have those department-sponsored events to inspire all of our female staff sworn and professional regardless of how much time they have on I think about 30 by 30 and creating that community of practice and how women can and I only say this because when I was in the academy there were a lot of young boys so we had 20 21 22 year old guys I was the youngest female and I was 24. and if I had um a presentation or some sort of initiative where I saw a young female officer doing what I had always hoped to do I probably wouldn't have waited so long to get into this career and I think these department-sponsored events do the same thing for us younger officers that maybe have never even thought about promoting you know seeing female Command Staff and Ladies of walk the walk and talk talk and how the and them showing us how they were successful just creates that that ability for us to go further and regardless of like you you're on 15 years and you're getting it done so that's awesome yeah I think and it's important that you know that we continue these and symposiums just because the more we bring it out and introduce it you know eventually we'll get somebody you know we'll catch somebody's eye but we have another one coming up in a few months so you know we pretty much hold to a year approximately and if we have time we'll throw a third one in there but I think just it is important that we do introduce them and expose them to our department in our in our department not only do we have those sponsored events for those of us that are already with Mesa PD but we do stuff to to connect with the community especially those young ladies that this might be a career that they're interested in doing I had the pleasure of attending the Aspire Academy I think a couple of agencies have been hosting that event for those of you that don't know it's a um it's a whole weekend for young ladies High School age ladies to do you know firefighting and police activities all weekend and seeing those those lady cops those lady firefighters that look like them act like them and are successful in their careers and if I had something like that I'd I can't tell that yeah we have good feedback on that that actually we that was incredible that was introduced to us from Tucson and we brought it on and with Mesa Mesa fire and Mesa PD and oh I don't even know how many years we've had it here it's been a few years but it's been a great outcome and like I said just mentoring the when they're young starting them young and the one of the hurdles to getting involved with these types of things can be you know combated at the at the Command Staff level because the issue is I mean there's calls on the board we're all in a recruiting crisis and it's it's tough to send us to a bunch of trainings but I feel like our at Mesa our Command Staff and our sergeants and lieutenants they understand the value of 30 by 30 and the value of connecting with the community and these types of events so I can't think of a time where I went to my sergeant like hey I gotta I really want to go do the Aspire Academy this week because it is it okay if I you know take a control spot off the street it's never been you know like oh there's no guilt to it it's like yeah go build yourself you know make things better and make things happen so but that starts at the at the higher levels which our department has done a really good job with so I agree just having that support mini carrots or anything you guys want to add great job but I I think we just wanted to express our I feel like we've had a great outcome with having these women The Women Leadership super exams work we're going to continue them we have the support to continue them so um eventually we'll hopefully we'll get those females because a lot of the younger generation actually not generation but the younger officers they're so focused on just going to work getting their their mandatory training and and not setting goals and find out what their purpose is and and getting to you know setting those goals ahead of time but um that's our feedback on that I'm not sure if you guys have any questions as far as what's worked for us and what hasn't um feel free to reach out thank you guys thank you